Thanks for the reference but I’m asking specifically about the xi/sigma mutation in διδάξασα and 306 doesn’t say anything about that.
Please humor me and tell me whether these four forms are correct:
Plural:
Nominative: διδάξασαι – teaching (feminine subject, plural)
Genitive: διδασασῶν – of the ones teaching
Dative: διδασάσαις – to/for the ones teaching
Accusative: διδασάσᾱς – teaching (direct object, plural)
I asked ChatGPT about why the shift doesn’t occur in the nominative but appears in the oblique forms and it gave me the following explanation. Please tell me whether you agree because it has a tendency to “confabulate”. I’m still not sure why the nominative should differ from the oblique forms here, or whether it really does, because ChatGPT it makes a lot of mistakes with Greek grammar:
ChatGPT4: The shift from διδαξ- to διδασ- in the plural genitive, dative, and accusative forms of the aorist active participle comes from a phonological rule in Ancient Greek. This shift is due to a process known as assimilation, which occurs to make the combination of sounds easier to pronounce.
Here’s why it happens:
The participle stem in the singular is διδαξ-, where the consonant cluster ξ (which represents the combination of κσ) is stable.
However, in certain forms of the plural (especially the genitive plural, dative plural, and accusative plural), endings begin with -σ. When ξ (which already contains a σ sound) is followed by another σ in these endings, the combination becomes awkward to pronounce."
I assure you that | don’t get my kicks from reposting anything but I still haven’t received any answers to the simple questions I asked in my first post:
Does that shift from διδάξ to διδασ really occur? If so, why?
Should there be a macron over the penultimate a in διδάξασα?
Joel already said, perhaps not clearly enough, that no, the shift does not occur. ChatGPT is just making stuff up. There’s no truth to it at all, and consequently no reason either.
And yes, the penultimate α in διδάξασα is long (as in all first aorist active feminine participles). Smyth 306 that Joel linked to says so, indicating it (in the web version) perhaps a bit confusingly with an underscore after the vowel. Whether you ought to put a macron or not over the vowel is another matter. It’s mostly grammars and teaching materials that mark long α, ι and υ.
Yes, διδαξ- in the aorist is stable, and does not lose the ξ.. (Early Greek does also have a different aorist in διδασκησ-, but that’s abnormal and short-lived.) The feminine is (διδάξ)ασα, with penultimate long α due to “compensatory” lengthening. All perfectly predictable. We can theoretically reconstruct something approximating διδάσκσαντσα (all the alphas short), reduced to διδάξασα by a series of regular phonological processes.
ChatGPT does not “know” any ancient Greek, and it’s a terrible tool for language learning. When it first was released, I asked it to generate some Akkadian paradigms for me, thinking it would be easier than typing it in. Of course, none of it matched what I was seeing in Huehnergard. Subsequent inquiries about other languages (Greek, Japanese, Thai) all produced similar nonsense.
Thanks a lot! διδάσκσαντσα to διδάξασα is some heavy-duty trash compacting!
About consulting ChatGPT4, the problem is that I’m using Betts’ “Complete Ancient Greek” and, although I found an online answer key for most of the reading and exercises, even that doesn’t cover the review exercises, which are quite sizable so I hesitate to ask too many questions here.
Yes, I don’t understand why ChatGPT doesn’t just store reliable reference paradigms that would preclude the silly mistakes it always makes. It’s also bizarre how it makes up fanciful “rules” that don’t make any sense instead of citing a reliable reference grammar or using a spellchecker.
It wasn’t programmed in that way. It wasn’t designed to know facts, but rather produce language that sounds human. It just uses predictive text, basically. Where the training data falters, it resorts to fabrication.
There’s a prominent warning at the bottom of the page saying that it might be inaccurate. In my opinion, that should be the default status until proven otherwise.
I have used ChatGPT a couple of times. The first time the answer I got was correct, but added: NB We are not yet very good on Attic Greek – or words to that effect. The second time it thanked me for having corrected its wrong answer. Haven’t used it since.
Hello ClassyCuss. From experience I have learned not to worry about asking questions here.
In the first place, writing a good question may get you half-way to the answer, so that you solve the problem yourself, and delete before posting. This happens to me often.
In the second place, the gurus here may suggest useful reference books and web sites. One who keeps asking will learn more and more how to solve the problems that come up.